With HBO’s True Detective now under his belt, director Cary Fukunaga is turning his eye back towards the feature film world. On his slate next is Beasts of No Nation with Idris Elba, and even though he hasn’t even begun production on it yet (it starts shooting next month), he’s already chosen his next project.
Deadline is reporting today the Fukunaga will be helming an adaptation of Tom Reiss’ The Black Count, the Pulitzer Price-winning biography of General Alex Dumas, who became the “highest-ranking person of color to ever serve in any European army.”
For those unfamiliar with the novel, you can check out Amazon’s synopsis below:
General Alex Dumas, is a man almost unknown today, yet his story is strikingly familiar—because his son, the novelist Alexandre Dumas, used his larger-than-life feats as inspiration for such classics as The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.
But, hidden behind General Dumas’s swashbuckling adventures was an even more incredible secret: he was the son of a black slave—who rose higher in the white world than any man of his race would before our own time.
Born in Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), Alex Dumas made his way to Paris, where he rose to command armies at the height of the Revolution—until he met an implacable enemy he could not defeat.
TIME magazine called The Black Count “one of those quintessentially human stories of strength and courage that sheds light on the historical moment that made it possible.” It is also a heartbreaking story of the enduring bonds of love between a father and son.
Admittedly, I’m not at all familiar with General Dumas or his story, but it sounds like perfect material that’s ripe for adaptation, especially by a director as talented as Cary Fukunaga. While he’s got several other projects on his plate right now aside from this one and Beasts, Deadline says that The Black Count will be next for him. Although, given how hot he is at the moment, and the amount of offers that are coming his way, I wouldn’t be surprised if this one gets pushed down on his list.
We’ll be sure to keep you posted when we hear more on this promising adaptation. For now though, tell us, what do you think of Cary Fukunaga adaptating the story of General Dumas? Sound off below!
